1. Field of the Disclosure
The features herein relate to a method of manufacturing actuators, a method of measuring a thickness of an active layer of the actuator, a method of manufacturing a recording head, and a recording device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A known inkjet head provided in an inkjet printer, which ejects ink droplets onto a recording medium such as a recording sheet, includes a flow-path unit and a plurality of actuators. The flow-path unit has nozzles which eject ink droplets, and pressure chambers communicating with the nozzles. The actuators apply ejection energy to ink in the pressure chambers. An actuator applies a pressure to ink in a pressure chamber by changing the volume of the pressure chamber.
The actuators may vary in operating characteristics as a result of different manufacturing conditions (firing conditions, variation in materials, and the like). Thus, for the inkjet head having the plurality of actuators, it is desirable to sort actuators in accordance with operating characteristics, and to use actuators having equal operating characteristics. A known method of manufacturing actuators having piezoelectric layers includes a technique of sorting actuators in accordance with operating characteristics (displacement characteristics) which are estimated based on capacitances of the actuators.
However, the operating characteristics of the actuators are determined not only by the capacitances. The thickness of the active layer significantly affects the operating characteristic. Meanwhile, to measure the thickness of the active layer, an observation of a cross section of the actuator has to be performed.